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Vicky: First of all, I would like to thank you for agreeing to give this interview and I would also like to welcome you!

Christopher: So many thanks Vicky. I’m really looking forward to the role of Vice President (VP) and subsequently President, and to serving as a trustee and director of the company.

Vicky: Christopher, you are the new Vice President. Would you like to introduce yourself to the IATEFL members who do not know you?

Christopher: I live in rural Scotland, and I’ve worked in ELT for many years now, both in the UK and abroad. By fate, rather than by planning, I’ve worked in a number of different roles for different stakeholders, including teaching, as a director of studies, as a teacher educator, and in publishing and in assessment. I also owned and ran a small group of private language schools in three different countries.

For some years now, I’ve been working as a freelance consultant and author. Most of my current work is with teachers and school inspectors in their home contexts.  I engage both in the writing and delivery of bespoke CPD, and undertake monitoring and evaluation work to help providers to gain an understanding of the efficacy of their ELT projects.

My main professional interests include trainer training, ELT and climate change, and teaching and learning in fragile environments particularly in conflict and post-conflict zones.

Vicky: Please share your experience and positions so far regarding IATEFL.

Christopher: I went to my first IATEFL conference in, I think, 1989 at the University of Warwick, my alma mater as it happens. I drove there in my Fiat Panda accompanied by someone who is still a very prominent stakeholder in ELT and who smoked about 60 cigarettes between London and Coventry, filling the small ashtray in my car.

I’ve attended numerous conferences over the years and spoken at several of them. As a freelancer, IATEFL is a remarkable way to network with colleagues and clients. More importantly, it’s great to catch up with friends!

I’ve recently been serving on the IATEFL Conference Committee and having a direct role in the selection of plenary speakers has been absolutely fascinating and an opportunity to help guide the direction, not just of the conference, but hopefully of the broader ELT community.

I also volunteer with EVE (around equity in ELT) and Green Action ELT (around climate change), and am a judge for the British Council ELTons awards.

Vicky: Would you like to share something about working on projects such as  ELT Footprint? Why climate action, for example?

Christopher: My work on ELT and climate change has moved in several directions, including working with the British Council on writing, research, and dissemination projects, and writing a book about climate change education. I think I can say, with all modesty, that ELT Footprint has played a significant role in creating an awareness of both the responsibility that ELT has to reduce its carbon footprint, and also of the opportunity we have to engage with climate topics in classrooms. I think we need to ensure learners have at least some of the tools they need to drive the debate forward in both English and in other languages. There’s a long way to go, but I think we are beginning to understand the potential that we have to really make change happen.

Vicky: If I am not mistaken, you also have an interest in sustainability in ELT. Please share your thoughts with our readers.

Christopher: Yes, sustainability, and in some ways that’s part of the climate change piece. But for me, sustainability goes beyond the interaction between climate and ELT. It’s about capacity building, about self-sustaining and organic communities of teachers, it’s about the native speaker (and I hate the term) debate, it’s about CPD being provided locally by local teacher educators, and it’s about multilingualism. A lot of things fit under the sustainability banner.

Vicky: What are your vision and philosophy? What do you aim to achieve in your new position?

Christopher: I’m increasingly understanding the potential of a global community like ours to be a real force for good and for positive social change, especially in areas such as DEI, interculturalism and global issues including climate change. What I hope to achieve is to continue to develop IATEFL’s position as a thought leader in these fields as they interact with language education. And as part of this vision, I want to maintain and enhance IATEFL’s status as an organisation that respects and caters for a diverse range of opinions, contexts, and concerns. This does sometimes risk controversy and disagreement, and I see part of my role as determining how we can get the very best out of all these opinions and positions, ultimately for the benefit of students worldwide.

Vicky: What skills are needed to lead a big organisation like IATEFL? How can you ensure making a positive impact?

Christopher: I think there are a number of skill sets involved, one of them I think is the ability to create empathy with the various stakeholders so as to see things from their point of view and to understand their priorities. I also think some intercultural understanding is important with an organisation like ours, too. Equally, I think being in a leadership role does require you to, well, lead, albeit in a consultative way, but sometimes being prepared to step up and explain why certain things, in the context of IATEFL’s organisational status, need to be as they are.

Above all, and this is something immodestly I would say I’m quite good at, is listening. All member voices are equal, and I intend, and in fact have already started to listen to members. I may not agree with all of them, but that’s not relevant. I need to try to see these ideas are listened to and where appropriate, acted upon.

With that in mind, my email address is: [email protected].

About Christopher

Christopher Graham is a freelance ELT consultant and author based in the UK. He has worked in the field since 1981 in over 30 countries for the British Council, ministries of education and international publishers. He is incoming Vice President of IATEFL, and was one of the founders of ELT Footprint, a 2020 British Council ELTons winner.

On January 6th, I had the opportunity and pleasure to present the webinar ‘So…let’s debate’ as a part of the IATEFL monthly webinars. It was a fruitful experience as I got in touch with many colleagues around the world. In case you have missed it, there is the recording of this webinar available only for IATEFL members by logging in using your account.

This report aims to give a brief overview of the main ideas discussed during the webinar as well as to add some more ideas regarding how a debate class can be used in the EFL/ESL classrooms. At the end of this article, you will find a list of reading materials that might be found useful to you, should you decide to organize such classes.

Debate is mostly connected with two politicians talking about their ideology during the pre-election period and they are trying to convince their voters to vote for them. However, it is not often as simple as it might seem to be. And for sure, debating is not only about politics or politicians. Debating is everywhere in every aspect of our lives, from two people deciding what to have for lunch to two people deciding on the most effective way to combat racism.

If we have to define what debate is, we would say that it is the art of Persuasion as Aristotle pointed out in his Rhetoric (dating from the 4th century), or a way to argue productively as Julia Dhar stated in her insightful TED talk. You can watch it here. In her talk, Dhar introduced the idea of debating effectively. To do that, one needs to get rid of or reduce their biases and misconceptions and be open to the other viewpoint. Therefore, to find a common ground we need to minimize the strength of our thoughts and be genuinely open to the other person’s thoughts and ideas; a key skill for this century’s citizens but a difficult one to acquire. In this sense, debating connects what we are saying with what we are not saying (Mehrabian, 1969) as well as with our emotions (Nobrega et al., 2018, as cited in Hasan, 2020).

Going back to the politicians, debating is not what it looks like when two politicians are debating, at least in the place where I live. It is not screaming or shouting at each other, interrupting constantly, or imposing your opinion because you ‘know better’. These are better avoided and do not constitute productive and effective debating.

How can these be implemented in an EFL/ESL classroom? There are some steps to be taken in order to do it.

1st step: set a goal (think about the reasons why you need such a class, e.g. to boost students’ confidence, to help students develop collaboration skills, critical thinking skills, etc.), set the time-frame, how you will get some feedback, any logistics, the management.

2nd step: after having clarified all or most of the above, it is time to structure the class by identifying what topics to use, the tools (videos/materials), how you will group your students

3rd step: structure your class by setting a time-frame and organizing the materials and the activities that need to be used or created

4th step: organize a debate contest with other classes either from the same school or not

Some fruitful activities that can be used during the class are:

1. You can use any controversial topics that are age and level-appropriate that you can find in your coursebooks, online papers and magazines, but you can also use Ted talks, videos from YouTube or visit Oxplore: www.oxplore.org
2. Through persuasion techniques/exercises (these appeal to logic/emotions, images, videos and research findings) the students will be more confident to build a strong argumentation.
3. Apart from the linguistic features (use of opinion language), it is a good idea for them to use their voice effectively. You can try warm-up your voice activities a. take some deep breaths for 2 minutes, b. begin by taking a deep inhale and expelling while making a hissing sound (S). Hold this hissing sound for 5 seconds and then repeat.
4. Use of intonation and speech rhythm to make the other person listen to you.
5. Activities on how to politely interrupt someone and most importantly to actively listen to someone.

I am sure that you have already thought of some reasons why creating a debate class but it is worth referring to some more here. Debating is all about respecting the other person, it builds empathy and negotiation skills and it fosters collaboration and motivation. It is also a great opportunity to address current issues and learn how to resolve conflicts effectively. Finally, it can be used with any age and level group regardless of where they come from.

So…it’s ok if we disagree but in a constructive way!

About Tanya Livarda

Tanya Livarda (BA/ MA in TESOL, DELTA) is an EFL teacher, a teacher trainer, a content writer, and an oral examiner. She has completed several courses and has attended a plethora of workshops. She has also presented at several conferences in Greece and abroad. She is a board member of TESOL Macedonia Thrace Northern Greece, a member of TESOL Greece and of IATEFL, and a committee member of LAMSIG.

Katherine was interviewed by Vicky Papageorgiou from the IATEFL Publications Committee

Hello Katherine and thank you so much for agreeing to this interview.

Hi Vicky. Thank you for inviting me.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, Katherine.

Well, I have been around for a while. I’m originally from Wales but I moved to Spain when I started working as an English teacher in 1987. I’ve lived here ever since. These days I live in a rural area in the north of the country. There are only nine inhabitants in our village so it’s very quiet and peaceful.

In terms of my professional life, I started out teaching private classes. Later, I got a teaching job in a school. After a few years I started teacher training, then writing professionally. These days I mainly work as a writer, but I continue to do teacher training and teaching now and then.

Could you describe your typical week ?

The good thing about being a freelance writer is that I can decide how to organize my time. That means there’s no such thing as a typical week. Right now, I’m in the middle of running a ‘Writing ELT materials’ course with my business partner, John Hughes, so I have to build in time for that.

Most weeks are a combination of two kinds of work: actual writing and the peripheral work that goes with it, such as meetings or reading through briefs from publishers. I’m usually doing other things too. This week I’m writing an article for a teaching journal and I’m planning a workshop for a convention in March.

It isn’t all work though. I’m increasingly aware of the importance of self-care. I start every day with a walk and I swim every day. I take plenty of breaks away, short ones where I pop outdoors for a breath of fresh air or longer ones when I might read, do some chores or watch TV.

How do you progress from a teacher to a materials writer?

There isn’t just one pathway. I was given the opportunity to write a primary coursebook when a commissioning editor attended a workshop I gave at a TESOL Spain convention. This first writing experience was very positive and I decided I’d like to move into writing full time, so I approached another publisher. The coursebooks became a kind of CV. If you’ve written something for a publisher, you’ve proven you can do the essentials – not only write, but follow a brief, keep to a schedule, work with an editor and respond well to feedback.

Anyone wishing to become a materials writer needs to get their work seen. Presenting at a conference, giving a webinar, sharing ideas through a blog are all good ways for publishers to find you. It also helps to show what your specialism is. If you know a lot about phonics, for example, make sure everyone knows.

What are the essential skills needed to get into materials writing?

I think we can divide skills into different areas.

First, there are the skills you gain through teaching, for example, knowing how long an activity might take.

Then there are skills related to the writing process and the principles of writing. These include things like knowing how to design a sequence of exercises that flow well and achieve the key objectives.

There are also skills which are specific to different contexts, such as self-study resources for Business English students or materials delivered via an app.

Finally, if you want to work for a publisher, you’ll need to consider skills of teamworking and collaboration, as well as  time management and responding well to feedback.

Please comment on the following “Designing appropriate materials is not a science: it is a strange mixture of imagination, insight and analytical reasoning.”

Oh! I wondered who said that. It’s lovely. I see that it was written by Graham Low, University of York. It’s cited quite frequently. I’m not surprised as it’s spot on. I would maybe adapt it and say, “Designing appropriate materials is not a science: it is a mixture of creativity, insight, analytical reasoning and hard work.” Creativity is key. We can all make materials that are mediocre but what the best ones have in common is a spark of imagination, something that engages the learners and perhaps prompts an emotional response.

What are your golden rules about materials writing you would like to share with new colleagues?

I’ll try and keep it to three.

(1) Keep things as simple as possible, from the wording of an instruction to the design of a page, and everything in between. Simplicity is everything.

(2) Always keep the end-users in mind while writing. This means the students as a group and as individuals, and also the teachers who might be using the materials.

(3) Respect copyright laws. We should behave impeccably in this respect so that students have good models to follow.

Would you like to share your plans for the future?

I love my work but ultimately, I’d like to work less and relax more. One of the downsides of being a freelance writer is that it isn’t easy to plan big chunks of time off. But that’s something I’m working on, especially longer term. Ideally, I’d like to work three months on and three months off. That would be perfect.

In this line of work, you never quite know what’s around the corner. I’ve just signed a contract to write a series of graded readers so that’s quite exciting and will keep me busy for the near future. There will be other projects too, but I have no idea what.

John and I have lots of plans bubbling away too – courses to run, talks and workshops at conferences, and books to self-publish. No peace for the wicked, as they say.

About Katherine

Katherine Bilsborough is a freelance ELT author and trainer. She is passionate about training teachers how to develop the skills they need to write their own classroom materials and has recently set up Writing ELT Materials Ltd. with her business partner and colleague, John Hughes.

 http://www.writingeltmaterials.com/

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